Successfully completed week 1 and am enjoying it a lot more than I ever imagined I would. I just wondered in the early weeks if there was an average distance to travel in the 30 mins? I have a long straight road to run up so I tend to run in a straight line until the halfway bell rings and then turn around towards home. Week one on average was 3.88km and yesterday's week 2 was exactly the same. Obviously as I progress to running the whole thing in week 9 I will cover a lot more ground but wondered if just under 4km sounds right for these early runs? Or whether I need to walk faster in the intervals
Forget distances at this stage and just concentrate on the time. Speed shouldn't be an issue, just take it slow and steady to ensure you complete each part of the programme.
I don't see how you can be covering 3.88 km in week one or is that the combined total in week one with the three runs added up? If you are, well done. As SC1472 says speed isn't the issue, and in anycase you will probably get much quicker in weeks 7 - 9. For reference I was doing Week 5 Run 3 (admittedly a different kind of stage) and covered only just over 2km (in 20 minutes)
3.88KM per session, sorry it wasn't clear. That's with the 5min walk, 60sec run/90 sec walk (x8) and then the 5min walkdown at the end.
I know everyone will be different, just wondered if there was an 'average' of what people had experienced at this stage. I do find myself plodding through the walk bits sometimes. Especially near the end!!
You are approaching C25K wrong!!! It is not about distance, but about time and following the program. Use a fitness tracker, or app on your phone to record your runs if you want to, but just compare your runs against each other. Doesn't make any sense to compare against other people or find an average. We are all different.
If you want to compare yourself with others, then you should be running 5000 metres in 12:37.35 minutes (for men) or 14:11.15 minutes (for women). Most people run slower than this, though
Are you walking fast enough? Are you running fast enough? Almost certainly you are walking too slow and running too fast. When running you should be able to hold a conversation, perhaps with shortened, gasped sentences.
Thanks for the information and you are of course right I just have OCD about numbers haha.
I use my Apple watch to track, which to be honest I might leave at home next session as it is only making me focus on the things I don't need to!!
You're right on the walking speed v running speed too. I find myself plodding quite a bit on the walks towards the end, but only because I've probably been running too fast.
Hello. Even though it's not about distance I covered about the same distance as you in weeks 1-3. On week 5 now I cover slightly more. I just happened to check an app on my phone, out of interest. But it is definitely about time 😎
How far you go in the early weeks is as much about walking speed as running. I am a very fast walker (my partner always complains about this) so I was covering a fair distance even in week one. Flip side of that, of course, is the increase in distance in later weeks isn't as much as you might think. But the bottom line is doesn't matter how far you run unless you are trying to run your commute to work. It's the time you spend running that matters.
I reckon you're doing pretty well if you cover 3.88 kms on Week 1 runs! I think in early weeks I was covering maybe 3.1-3.3 kms per run in Week 2. Last Friday I completed Week 6 Run 3 (25 minutes continuous run) and covered 4.4 kms, but to be honest found the last 5 minutes a bit of a strain (though I kept going). So this morning in Week 7 Run 1 I took it much more steadily (same run) and covered only 4.1 kms ( including warm up and cool down walks). I was averaging about 7:50 to 8:00 per kilometer. This felt much more manageable, and the important thing is to build up stamina. I don't expect to be covering 5 kms in 30 minutes by the end.
Some friends of mine who now regularly do the Parkrun reckon you should aim for the first Parkrun to be slow - maybe about 40 minutes. The advantage of this as well is that you get a Personal Best on the second run!
Whatever you do, don't burn yourself out. The runs get considerably more challenging as the weeks progress, and you may find that if you try and keep up the pace you're doing that you hit a brick wall when required to run, say 5 minutes without a breather. (OTOH you may be much younger and fitter and less overweight than me!)
There's a really good link somewhere on here to a research piece that showed that most amateurs don't understand how to find a slow-enough gear. But they need to. Professionals shave more time in competition if they run very slowly for 80% of their training. That's counter intuitive for our striving selves - but very reassuring for a slow coach like me. Also injury is the plague of runners and while we're clock watching I guess we're less inclined to listen to our bodies. I am inexperienced but if I end up back on the couch with an injury I will be so cheesed off! Good luck - and good, provocative question! 😀
Time yourself by all means, but comparison to others is pretty pointless as those on this forum come in all ages, weights, shapes, genders and physical abilities. With your own times you can watch your progress, but as others say, that is not the aim of the programme.
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Week 4 run 2.. distances 
Early morning runs 
Recording distances
2 weeks off! 
What do you eat before an early morning run?
